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RE: RAT KNIGHTS
So everyone stopped talking at once! Wierd!
Hey so Del Close died. So did Stanley Kubrick and Richard Kiley.
I saw Richard Kiley doing Man of La Mancha in Portsmouth NH when I was like
11. I think that was my seminal theater experience. Man of La Mancha is a
tremendously good show. Very affecting and extremely theatrical. I love the
parrallels between Cevantes the artist and Don Quixote the madman and the
struggle of imagination against the forces of evil. Then you have all these
crazy people taking on the roles of Cervantes' story and through theatrical
creation a community is borned.
Damn!
So I guess its no wonder after that that when I was driving down the freeway
listening to NPR and they played Kiley singing "The Impossible Dream" that I
burst in to tears.
( I do that a lot. Drive on the Freeway I mean. Listening to NPR. Bursting
into tears. Mostly tears of joy at the beauty of life. Maybe I'm nuts.)
Here Read This:
To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star
This is my quest, to follow that star
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far
To fight for the right, without question or pause
To be willing to pass into hell for a heavenly cause
And I know, if I'll only be true to the glorious quest
That my heart lies peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest
And the world will be better for this
That one man scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last once of courage
To reach the unreachable star
This is my quest, to follow the star
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far
To fight for the right , without question or pause
And to dream the impossible dream
The impossible dream
The impossible dream
The impossible
What a great expression of RATish theater! Except for the pure and chaste
from afar part. To Dream the Impossible Dream. This is my quest. To follow
that star. No matter how hopeless no matter how far. To fight for the right,
without question or pause. How about putting that down on a grant
application!
So that brings us to the late great Stanley Kubrick. I don't know why he's
in the middle of this list of great dead people. I didn't feel a connection
to him because, as an artist and a man, Kubrick was disconnected. An avowed,
brilliant misantropic auteur. The last director who could bully hollywood.
To bad. Hollywood needs bullying.
Speaking of brilliant misantropes....
Del Close.
The original RAT. The RATtest RAT that ever RATTED. Del was a genius who
taught nearly every famous funny person there is what funny was. Where it
came from. When I met Del he was living in two rooms the size of this office
cubicle. There were three things in there, Del, his bed and his books. Del
read everything. A science fiction/comic book geek he could quote
Shakesphere, Kant and Klaatu from the Day the Earth Stood Still in one
sentence.
I didn't know Del Close very well but I did know him a little and he had a
profound impact on me and many others. I took one great acting class in my
life. Not like a series of classes, one class. It was inside an improv
workshop that Del was leading in Chicago. A class with Del was always a
surprise. On a bad day he might spend two hours dropping names of all the
famous people he taught or knew or did drugs with or whatever.* On a good
day he was the best teacher in the world. In this one class This particular
span of two hours was the most incredible learning experience. I just sat
there with my mouth open.
Then of course there's improv. Del was doing improv with the original
Compass Players (you know, Mike Nichols, Elaine May blah blah blah. ) At
that time, people thought that improv was something you couldn't teach but,
as Del tells it, it was something Del had learned so he spent years figuring
out what exactly he had learned so he could teach it to others. And so he
did.
Del was also a (recovering) heroin addict who couldn't look anyone in the
eye when he talked to them. He couldn't or wouldn't do improv with any one
else when I met him. He could barely carry on a conversation with another
person. But he could do improv with himself, creating sometimes brilliant
monologues at the beginning of shows at Cross Currents. He could also,
sometimes, teach a roomful of people how to knock out the blocks and explode
like creative supernovas. To use the imagination to go to farthest reaches
of space or the deepest mines of the human psyche without benefit of props
or a script. No net. To fight the fear and beat the fear and use the fear
and love the fear. What am I going to say or do now? I don't know but here
it comes.
Yes. Yes. Yes. And. And and....
Del was always exploring. Always trying things again in new ways. Always
challenging his students to be free-er, fiercer. To reach the unreachable
star.
Thank you Del.
Thanks Richard
Thanks Stanley.
So thats it. Life moves on.
Excelsior!
John
*(He told this great story about the time that Timothy Leary and G. Gordan
Liddy came over to his apartment after a debate and they all lay on Del's
bed watching TV. Del and Leary smoked some pot while Liddy pretended not to
notice.)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sylvain, John [SMTP:jsylvain@station.sony.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 1999 9:56 AM
> To: 'rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com'
> Subject: RE: RAT KNIGHTS
>
> Test Test. Is the List alive? Am I getting the list? Did everyone stop
> talking at once or is there something wrong with my connection.
>
> Would somebody send me an individual email confirming receipt thru Rat
> list.....
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: nick [SMTP:nickname@clara.co.uk]
> > Sent: Monday, March 08, 1999 4:57 AM
> > To: rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com
> > Subject: Re: RAT KNIGHTS
> >
> > At 02:55 PM 3/6/99 EST, Btmsdream@aol.com wrote:
> >
> > >Do I dare presume of greatness? Tis not for us to chant outside the
> > castle
> > >window. The King and his Queen will appear at the ballistrade and wave
> at
> > the
> > >proper time. Long live the Nights of Coney Island.
> > >
> > >
> >
> > Wouldst thou strange mortal dare now conjure here
> > KnightMare of Coney for its awe-full ride?
> > Hath thee no fear that Harlequins may stir?
> > NightMary phantoms in quiet abide
> > 'Til such fortuitous hex doth mirror
> > Presence of what it doth not know it ask.
> >
> > But yes indeed the wellborn Beer Mystic
> > With his chaste Mermaid Queen shall grace the Masque.
> >